Friday, March 30, 2007

Say 'good-bye' to Disney DTV Sequels (more news on the John Lasseter front)


An Animation Mentor classmate brought this article to my attention:

End of the Line

It details Disney's resolution to put an end to their Direct to Video sequels. It seems Lasseter is not responsible for the decision, but is backing it 100%.

I guess we never will get to observe the touching coming-of-age prequel about Silver's shape-shifting pet, Morph (yea, I made that up, but who knows what we would be expected to endure of this trend continued?)

Thursday, March 29, 2007

class 1 reel

Um, can i just say 'WOW'? I can't believe it is that time already. The past few months have been incredible, and quite the jump-start! The first several weeks were a little slow, but they got much more challenging as we got into overlapping action and then walks. It is now time to put together a final reel for AM. They say they archive our work to track our progress and for possible job considerations, so that might be something to look forward to some day. I wanted to go back and redo just about every one of these assignments, but that would take weeks. So, here it is:



My goal for the next term is to better manage my time. I will probably be working more, and I got pretty unorganized this term. I need to schedule time for my assignments as well as keeping up this blog and mytoons.com (if i keep them both, who knows)

Here comes class 2, body mechanics!

Monday, March 05, 2007

there may be hope for Disney yet

In the form of Mr. John Lasseter. Over in the AM forums, this article was posted about Lasseter now being the chief creative officer of animation for the Walt Disney Company. In the past decade, Disney has taken a nose dive in several projects. I liked “Treasure Planet,” but most didn't since it was their biggest flop. I am also to see 2d has practically disappeared from the main stream, and, lets face it, the Parks could use some help too.

Lasseter intends to change all that, and he is just the man for the job.

"But since Pixar was acquired, Mr. Lasseter has been heralded as a latter-day Walt Disney, a cultural arbiter who can rekindle the spirit of Disney’s famous animation at its theme parks, on store shelves and in a theater near you.

...

"Since taking over, Mr. Lasseter and Mr. Catmull have instituted a program to revive the hand-drawn animated short. 'The whole purpose is to get these artists ready for feature films,' Mr. Lasseter said.

"The day after he won a Golden Globe for 'Cars,' Mr. Lasseter and 13 animation executives gathered in Story Room 1 on the second floor of the studio in Burbank to hear an art direction pitch for a new short film featuring Goofy titled 'How to Hook Up Your Home Theater.'"

The article goes on to describe Lasseter's ideas for the company, including marketing arrangements with high-end organizations like Sur La Table and promotions like a “Ratatouille” -inspired, 'cheese of the month club' with Costco.

You don't want to miss He Runs That Mickey Mouse Outfit over at nytimes.com.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

East coasters!

This is a random post, move along :)